More than a century after the First World War, vast stretches of French soil remain contaminated, with some areas still too hazardous to access. Experts warn it could take 700 years to clear hidden munitions – the legacy of a conflict that wrought unprecedented destruction on the land.
In the forest of Spincourt near Verdun, a clearing stands as a stark reminder of the lasting environmental impact of war.
Nothing has grown in these 1,000 square metres for almost 100 years. Soon, authorities will install a protective dome over this toxic site – known locally as the "gas place" – where the German army destroyed more than 200,000 arsenic chemical shells after the war, poisoning the land.
"The First World War set a new standard in combat," geologist and historian Daniel Hubé told RFI, explaining that more than 2 billion artillery shells were fired on the Western Front.
Many failed to explode, and in 1929 in the Meuse region alone, 127 recovery workers and bomb disposal experts died trying to secure former battlefields.
Those buried remnants pose risks even today. "We’re still digging up shells in very good condition. In some places, we’re literally walking on shells," Hubé added.
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‘Red zones’
Immediately after the war, the French authorities established "red zones" in which many activities were temporarily or permanently banned due to contamination.
However, farmers lobbied to reclaim and cultivate these areas, particularly in fertile regions such as Pas-de-Calais. The “red zone” there initially spanned 26,000 hectares, but pressure to reduce restrictions saw it reduced to just 472 hectares within four years.
The post-war cleanup created its own environmental crisis and, paradoxically, was "even more polluting than the war itself," according to Hubé.
Military leaders had maintained their firepower in preparation for a final offensive planned for summer 1919. When the November 1918 armistice came unexpectedly, France found itself with massive stockpiles of munitions to dispose of – an estimated 2 million tonnes were destroyed between the wars. "Fields and factories were cluttered with munitions," said Hubé.
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Water contamination
The cleanup effort involved risky and damaging processes. The military initially deployed prisoners of war to detonate the remaining shells, often in areas already ravaged by four years of industrial warfare. Other munitions, including chemical shells, were dumped in lakes and seas.
In 1920, overwhelmed by the scale of the task, the French government outsourced much of the disposal work to private companies which, Hubé explained, led to profitable opportunities for industrialists.
The environmental impact became clearer in the latter half of the 20th century, when recreational activities such as diving revealed numerous submerged munitions.
Large-scale decontamination efforts began in the 1990s, on sites such as Lake Gérardmer in the Vosges, in eastern France, and Lake Bleu d’Avrillé in Maine-et-Loire in the west of the country.
In 2011, controversy arose when perchlorate ions – a by-product of explosives – were found in tap water across northern France, an area synonymous with First World War battlefields.
"This contamination is probably linked to perchlorated explosives left on battlefields and munitions destruction sites, although agricultural sources are also a possibility," Hubé explained.
By the autumn of 2012, drinking water in more than 500 communities in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments was deemed unsafe. Ten years on, questions about the water quality remain unresolved.
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700 years of cleanup
The scale of contamination remains staggering, with French land unique in its exposure to conflict. "No other country on earth has experienced three major interstate conflicts on its territory in less than a century," said Hubé, referring to the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), which was partly waged on French soil, as well as the First and Second World Wars.
Officials estimate that it could take 700 years to completely clear French soil of buried munitions.
These days, the environmental consequences of warfare receive greater attention. Since 1999, the United Nations has published more than 20 reports on the subject – studying regions including Kosovo, Ukraine and Gaza with the goal of developing international laws to minimise war-related ecological damage.
This story was adapted from the original article reported in French by RFI's Nicolas Pagès.
